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Late Night Gimp Fight

This five-man sketch group from London was formed in November 2008. They were nominated for best newcomer in the 2010 Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards, and won best sketch or character act at the 2011 Chortle awards.

Nine half-hour episodes of Impractical Jokers have now been ordered to air across both channels, following a pilot episode made earlier this year. The show features four-fifths of the Gimp Fight team: Lee Griffiths, Matt Ralph, Paul Biggin and David Moon.

Impractical Jokers originally started in the States in 2011, with New York sketch troupe The Tenderloins, and the imported version is frequently Comedy Central UK’s top-rated show. This is the second British remake, following a BBC Three version with stand-ups Roisin Conaty, Marek Larwood, Joel Dommett and Paul McCaffrey running for two series in 2012 and early 2014.

Both the BBC Three and new Channel 5 show are made by independent production house Yalli.

Around a decade ago Channel 5 and Paramount Comedy – as Comedy Central was then called – had a joint development deal which produced sitcoms such as Suburban Shootout, about middle-class gangsters; Respectable, set in a brothel; and Angelo’s with Sharon Horgan. However Channel 5 soon abandoned comedy, except for archive clip shows.

Channel 5 director of programmes Ben Frow told TV trade magazine Broadcast today: ‘We have to make sure when we do comedy on Channel 5, we get it right. If it doesn’t rate that’s fine, but in terms of critical acclaim, it is imperative that we do not look like idiots and put some rubbish on the screen. We have to make sure that we’re playing with the big boys.’

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